by D.R. James
Life has been a grand migration
to where you are today!
–well known wisdom
I didn’t know!
Otherwise,
when those raggedy squadrons
clamored overhead last evening—
three V’s disarrayed
like frayed arrow feathers,
their leaders insistent as clowns
with braying horns, honking
for plane geometry—
I would have taxied, sprinted,
lifted arthriticly
from water’s edge (granted
more dodo than goose,
my splayed toes just scuffing
the webbed crests of waves),
and elbowed my way
into a rhythmic wedge
to claim my slot
in that mindless rotation
toward the life-saving draft.